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My name is Janet (Hagan) Monnin. I started searching for my family’s genealogy and history in 1980. I was a Junior in High School then and happened to attend my local DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) meeting. I knew I could become a member of the DAR because my grandmother (Mary Elizabeth Crego Hagan) had worked on the family history for some time and she was a member. So, through them I found the right forms to fill out and started on my merry way – little knowing what was in store for me down the road. I took a hiatus from genealogy while I was in college, then returned to it after I started my first "real" job and passed the CPA exam. As I started filling out all the ancestor charts and family groups sheets my organization genes kicked in. I searched for and ordered birth, death, and marriage records, cemetery records, read local histories, got copies of obituaries and newspaper announcements, went to the National Archives in Chicago, spent lots of time at the downtown library in Cincinnati (which is the 5th largest genealogical library in the US), searched rolls of microfilm for census records and vital records, spent a little time at the LDS (Latter Day Saints or Mormon library) and much more. Then I was able to put together a "book". This book was a notebook that contained a separate tab for each of my main ancestors going back, with copies of all the ancestor charts, family groups sheets and all source information that I had found related to each family. This was about 1990 to 1992. Since that time, my filing system has been expanded. I now have one three ring binder for each main family going back and this notebook contains all that I have collected for that one family. During this time I also bought my first genealogy program for the computer and put all the data in it. (which was a great time saver not having to individually type everything or make photocopies of everything). That first program was a DOS program and since that time I have upgraded several times. I have since purchased "The Master Genealogist" which is an excellent software program. Through this program I can now input all my sources – which means I can input whatever documentation I have for each individual event. For example, if I have an 1870, 1880 census, a marriage certificate and a death certificate for a specific individual, I can enter the data from these sources in to support that person’s birth date and place, as well as many other events. The drawback to this is that it is very time consuming to put all this data in – it’s taken me over a month to put in documentation for just one family!!! Then in 1999, my husband gave me my own web site. I have since learned Microsoft FrontPage and so now I'm not only responsible for the content here, but I am also the webmaster. (twice the fun!). My thanks especially to our family's genealogists, who shared a lot of family information with me to get me going. Thanks also to everyone else in the family who purchased a book from me which provided me with the funds to order all the different records. I also appreciate everyone who has since made contributions, which all help to keep this site going. I hope you all enjoy the site and if you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them. Thanks. Jan Monnin |
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